Faithful
by Laryna6
Summary: The Seventh Fonon is the fonon of the Planet's Memory. In the process of trying to learn how to speak, the child returned to Baticul learns quite a lot of other things. Sometimes, running away to join the circus is a fantastic idea.
1. Chapter 1

Yet another AU that has been in my documents folder for ages, incomplete. Finishing up old fics… It's a combination of good and embarrassing to see the improvement.

It's one of those fics where I had a concept, and I wanted to see what would happen because of it. Maximum amount of Luke and Ion being cute and people being competent were the other priorities.

Chibi!Pickpocket!Luke, though… Also Luke and monies is always cute. Financial Investor!

Another factor in me getting this finished is that I recently played_ Recettear_. Capitalism, ho!

Oh: yes, the tenses get confusing at a couple of points. It's deliberate. The idea is to convey the feeling of Lorelei's nature as the fonon of time (the planet's memory is past, present, future, all combined and all equally valid at once) causing Luke to sort of… Slip into a mindset of eternal present. For Lorelei in this there is essentially only one time and it is NOW, so when Luke has key moments that involve his power the memories of them can be experienced the way Lorelei views things: not so much remembered as relived. Most of the story is past tense, these parts are present.

Sadly, the most recent backup I had of this file didn't get as far as Cheagle Woods. Going to have to rewrite it. Ah well.

* * *

He doesn't understand why it works at first, only that it does. 'How' is mostly a matter of instinct, ever since the day a week after he came to the manor that he was so thirsty and couldn't figure out how to get across to Guy that he wanted some water, not a toy or a piece of _dry_ toast. Guy had to know the word, he would recognize it, so he'd finally stopped trying every single word he could remember and garbled fragments of half-remembered ones and _tugged_ at Guy, in the same way he_ pushed_ when the headaches started because he didn't want the pain.

It had been a moment of anger and need, and he'd regretted it right after Guy fell to the ground when what Luke tugged out of him left him momentarily empty. Half-panicked, he'd 'looked' over what he'd taken to try to figure out how to put it back in the same instant he copied the word for water and other words.

He'd managed to stick him back in okay, but then Guy had looked at him and been so _afraid_ that it was also a reflex to make him forget what happened so he wouldn't be afraid anymore. Guy was his only 'friend' (he knew the word now: servant wasn't the right word at all) and seeing Guy tremble, so very afraid of him? He hated it. _Hated it_.

He hadn't done anything with that power for awhile afterwards. Everyone had been so excited that he'd remembered how to talk, but that meant that they were not pushing for more progress and he _hated_ to disappoint them. They were always disappointed with him.

This time he was more careful, and just sort of touched Guy when he was helping him stand up and keep his balance, not tugged but felt what Guy was remembering when he walked, ran, jumped, put Luke's clothes on…

After that Van had started to come by more often, since his student would be able to resume training, and emboldened by his success Luke had reached for Van's combat techniques. After Guy's reaction Luke had kept this a secret, knowing from the fact that Guy had been afraid that this had to be scary, since Guy was so brave. He didn't want to scare people. So, he wouldn't suddenly know everything, he decided, he'd just learn things quickly, although he'd remember the techniques Van had already taught him right away. He'd be able to impress someone for the first time if he learned things the first time Van showed him!

Between silverware from Ramdas and Ancient Ispanian from his tutor and many others Luke had gotten good at this. He'd learned about amnesia, and knew that normally people knew how to walk and talk even though they didn't remember the details of their lives, and that trying too hard to give reminders could mess up their memories.

Because of that he'd never reached for anyone's memories of Luke. He might never recover then.

He'd been so careful since what he'd done to Guy: none of them had even felt it.

That was why it was such a shock when Van reacted instantly, throwing him to the ground with his sword at Luke's throat. "What was that?"

Van thought this was dangerous? An attack?

Luke only thought that part after the fact. He'd never been attacked before in his life, and Van was serious. He would get an explanation out of Luke, or kill him, or maybe even both. So pulling Van the way he had Guy so he fell to the ground as Luke moved out of the way of the falling sword was another bit of instinct.

He'd gotten Van's techniques in the initial touch. Now he had other questions, urgent ones, that he looked for in Van's knowledge about the world (personal memories were private).

How had Van detected that?

_Seventh fonist, descendant of Yulia Jue. _

Seventh fonist?

_User of the seventh fonon, made up of the other six plus memory particles. _

Since this was memory, could Van do it too, read and copy the memories of others since he was a seventh fonist?

_No. No human had this amount of control. Even the Fon Master could only read the fonstones Lorelei had created. _

Lorelei?

_The sentience of the seventh fonon, the entity Luke and his replica shared the frequency of._

Replica?

_Himself. He wasn't the real Luke fon Fabre._

What?!

_Now_ Luke looked at Van's memories.

When Van regained consciousness with no idea why he had blacked out while training the replica, 'Luke' was gone.

* * *

"We do look alike. No wonder Van was able to fool everyone."

Luke whirled, clutching the sword he'd taken off some bandits. Behind him stood _him_. The replica. Wearing Luke's clothing. "You!"

The replica raised his hands to ward off Luke's anger and stepped back. "I don't want to fight you. I want to take you home. They're all worried about you."

"…What?"

"Van put me there and told everyone that I was you with amnesia. They were so worried and they wanted you back, but I couldn't remember, I couldn't be you for them and they missed you. Then I… Found out what Van had done." The replica was keeping something back. "So I want to take you home, so Guy and Natalia and Mo-Suzanne," that was right, she was Luke's mother, not his, "can see you again."

Luke was still two days on foot from Baticul. "How did you find me?" How had he gotten out of the house, for that matter? Luke knew very well that security had to have been ramped up.

"Hyperresonance. Our power." The power Van had been after. "It took me awhile to find you. I'm sorry. I ended up in the core first. And…" the replica paused for a long time before slumping. "I can't get us back to Baticul that way. I don't have a target and I'm not good enough to do this without a big one yet. I'm still figuring this out even though Lorelei explained a lot."

"Lorelei?" The replica had talked with Lorelei?

"The person we're isofons of. The fonon sentience. I was trying to find you because I knew you should feel like me, but Lorelei's bigger than you and more like me since replicas are all seventh fonons like he is and humans aren't. So I kept ending up in the core and eventually I gave up and started talking to him even though he was the one who kept giving me headaches. He's actually really nice, though!" The replica sighed. "Um… What do you want to do?"

"I want to go home." That was all he could want at the moment.

"Yeah, but how are you going to do that?"

"Walk, or stow away on something. The same way I got this far."

"Really?" The replica was impressed. "Wow! The world is big, and that's really far! I've never been out of the manor before this, well, not that I remember. Can I come with you? They stopped looking for you when Van gave them me, so I owe it to you to try to help you get home, at least. I'm sorry I didn't bring anything, I left right after I found out and I didn't think to bring any food. I have my practice sword, though, and I can use fonic artes."

"Wait a minute. You can use fonic artes? Van said you shouldn't even be able to really talk yet."

"It's because of our power. I was thirsty, and I couldn't think of how to ask, and I found out that I can control people's memories. Lorelei said it's instinct and I was lucky it just happened, since it's not something teaching would help."

"So you stole someone's memories of how to perform fonic artes?"

"Yeah." The replica scraped its boot in the dirt. "Van. He felt me doing it, and attacked me, and that was what made me find all of this out."

"Van is in Baticul?"

"He was seven hours ago. I vanished, and while he was there. So I don't know what they'll do about that. When you get there you can tell them what happened. But… Please don't tell them about me?"

"Why not?"

"Replicas can sort of just vanish sometimes. If they don't know that you met me they'll think that's what happened. I think that's the best thing."

"Why?"

"Because they're your family, not mine. I'm just an imposter, they won't let me stay and father and the king would have to have me locked away or killed so I couldn't impersonate you again. Guy and Natalia and everyone, they'll think I'm a monster or something since I'm not human. I don't want to have them look at me like that." The replica's arms were wrapped around himself as he started to cry. The difference between the reasonable words and the anguished voice was so huge Luke could tell that this was a way of talking the replica had copied from someone else., someone who rarely cried. "So I'm going to go away once you're home and safe."

"What are you going to do?" Luke found himself feeling sorry for him. It was like looking in a mirror, he'd been that miserable many times since he'd been kidnapped.

"Lorelei said I could stay, at least for awhile." The replica tried to smile. "Don't worry about me. You're the one who was kidnapped and had his replica data extracted, which is really dangerous, and nearly had his family stolen by a fake, and…"

Luke patted him on the shoulder, in lieu of anything else to do. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, it's Van's," the replica pointed out as he hugged back. "I hope everything turns out okay. I'll, I'll help you get home and then if you want to talk to me I'll show you how."

"What should I call you? Wait, do you have a name?"

"No, not except Luke, and it's yours."

"Um…" Luke tried to think. "Luke and Lorelei are L names. Luke means light, Lorelei means murmuring rock, or singing world. Lance sounds cool. It means land, as well as the weapon, but I think if you want to stay fighting with a sword we should pick something better."

"Shouldn't we get going? Stronger monsters come out during the day."

"Yeah, you're right." Luke let him stand up. He didn't want Luke to name him? Or was it that he though he shouldn't have a name right now, wasn't worth the time to pick one out? "Cheer up. I'll be home soon, and then I'll probably be under house arrest while you get to live in the core with Lorelei. I kind of want to trade back places."

"No. They're your family, and they love you. You need to go home to them. I won't take your place, it's not right." The replica swung wide around an area, and Luke recognized the signs of someone avoiding a monster even though he couldn't make one out in the darkness brightened only by Luna and the fon belt.

His replica was really determined to do the right thing. "Leal."

"What?"

"Leal. It means faithful."

"Leal." His replica looked at him and smiled. Luke found himself smiling back and wondered how long it had been since he'd exchanged friendly smiles with someone. Probably not since he last saw Guy before he was kidnapped. "Thank you." It clearly meant a lot.

"It's nothing."

They stopped by a stream awhile before dawn. As Leal soaked aching feet (he'd never walked further than across the mansion) in the cold water Luke drew random patterns in it with a stick, more to erase his reflection than to play. "I don't know if I should go home," he confessed.

"Why not? Guy and Natalia love you, and Suzanne too."

"You didn't say Father or Uncle. Do you know about why Van made you?"

"Akzeriuth?"

Luke nodded.

"Oh." Leal frowned. "Well… Lorelei can't just erase that. He's bound to keep the Score going, the pact Yulia made. But Van knows a lot about the stuff the Order has to do to keep following the Score the way they want. I don't think we can break the Score, not yet anyway, but we could look for loopholes."

"Loopholes?"

"Yeah. Like Van wanted to have it be me instead of you by making my name be Luke fon Fabre. Oh, that's something! Changing a name and identity would count as destroying yourself. It has to be a real, serious change, though. We couldn't just rename Akzeriuth and get out of it that way. Well, we have seven years to work on it." Leal smiled at him. "I was made to save you, anyway. So I'll help save you. I like you and I don't want Mother to be sad or Natalia to cry anymore."

"Natalia cried?"

Leal stared at him. "Of course Natalia cried! I only knew her for a couple months and_ I_ know that she loves you very much. People cry for people they love, or have to work very hard not to cry, anyway."

A couple months. That reminded Luke of how very young Leal was. He did a good job of faking ten, Asch's age and the age he looked, but even if he'd copied how to act from people the way he'd copied how to talk (a lot of Leal's mannerisms reminded Luke of Guy, now that he thought about it), he was really an infant. An infant who had just found out that his home wasn't his.

Luke had seen babies, and they were awful brats. He'd been glad he couldn't have a little brother. A normal baby would have kept Luke's family to himself. Leal truly was very honorable. Luke owed Leal, he decided, for this. What could he do to repay him? Leal was right, Luke's family would have him killed even if Luke begged for them to let him stay. So he'd have to be family for him. And it looked like Lorelei would too. At least Leal wouldn't be homeless and abandoned the way Luke had feared he would be.

Although that was less important than the fact that Van kidnapping Luke had made Natalia cry. By his honor, there had to be vengeance for that as well as what he'd done to Luke himself.

Also, Luke was hungry. "Do you know how to fish?"

"No, I never had any reason to copy it from someone." Leal was, in a roundabout way, asking permission to copy it from Luke so he could help catch dinner with that look.

"I think I'll show you." There was a flash of hurt in Leal's eyes. "I don't mind you looking in my memories if you ask permission first, but normally people learn things by being taught. If you want to make friends you're going to have to learn how to learn things the normal way, because they'll think it's weird if you suddenly know them."

"Guy was scared." Oh, so that was why Leal was so worried by Asch's reaction. He was afraid he would be hated for this power the way Luke was seen as a weapon for his.

"Does it hurt?"

"I kind of tore him out of his body by accident the first time I did it. Other than that, Van was the first person to notice me doing it."

"Could you do it so I can see what it's like? And can you give memories as well as taking them?"

"Yes, and make people forget. Should I do it now?"

"Now." Luke closed his eyes to focus.

The side of him Leal was on felt more… there wasn't really a word. It wasn't just Leal's body heat. There was a hesitant sort of feeling that was probably the equivalent of a poke. Luke knew what the seventh fonon felt like, but there weren't really words, and this was different from casting an arte or having one cast on him. "I'm done," Leal told him.

Luke opened his eyes. "No, that didn't hurt. So… Do you want to start fishing?"

"Sure! I'll go find a walking stick!" Leal ran off to find his own makeshift fishing pole and started to braid his hair into a line as Luke set himself up in a likely spot with some monster meat that he'd had wrapped in leaves to save and use as bait. It was sort of beeflike, but he wouldn't want to eat it if he had another option. Luckily the fish were biting and they did.

Having someone else with him, especially someone who knew how to heal, made a big difference. Before Leal came he'd been just trying to survive, but now it felt like a camping trip. Leal told him how everyone was doing and he told Leal about how they'd gotten that way. It made it feel real, somehow, that he'd escaped and was going home. Home was still there. Leal had kept it waiting for him and even if he hadn't been able to bring Luke back to Baticul just like that he'd brought home to Luke.

Leal, Leal was family. Like the twin brother, or baby brother, he'd never had.

But Leal couldn't be family to Luke's family. They'd kill him, they really would. Mother and Natalia would back Luke up, but there was no way they would let Leal stay with Luke.

So they ended up camping outside Baticul when they got there, so they could rest up. "Wow, it's really pretty." Leal had no memories of anything outside the manor: he'd only learned how to make his memories stay clear instead of fading away because his brain was so new and hadn't gotten the hang of it yet when he'd learned how to copy other people's memories. He didn't remember with his brain, he remembered with his fonons.

"Can you get away safely if we go into the city and the guards recognize us before we get to the manor?" Luke asked. "Since we're here, I want to show you Baticul."

"Sure, and if I can't Lorelei will call me to him." Leal looked excited, but, "Wait. Don't you want to go home?"

"Of course. But it would be a better idea to find out what's going on then to just walk right in. Van might be there, or who knows what. We should go find someplace the White Knights don't go where there's a lot of gossip. Hey! Come on, I'll show you the Coliseum. If you can figure out how to disguise yourself, then if they let me get out of the manor maybe we could meet up there sometime." The Coliseum was great fighting practice: they wouldn't be able to refuse him that if he got good enough.

"Sure!"

Which was how they ended up eating really unhealthy food (Leal's first taste of fried goodness) and watching the fights while talking about the artes and tactics of the participants with the man in the next seat over. Discussing sword styles allowed Luke to steer the conversation to Van (he was a Duke's son, he knew basic politicking skills like that), who was in the dungeon awaiting a representative of the Order of Lorelei to come by and review what was going on.

If Van was in the dungeon it should be safe to go home.

The lifts to the noble and military levels were guarded. Luckily, the royals knew a secret way. "Come on, let me show you how to get up to where the manor is." Maybe they could figure out a story for Leal, or something? He didn't want to say, 'this was the boy who found me,' not when they looked almost identical. That was asking for it. But if Leal grew his hair out, dyed it, something, learned how to copy an accent, maybe Chesedonian, then maybe…

And then they were there, and Luke didn't want to say goodbye. "Can I talk to you? If you and Lorelei can talk to each other?"

"Yeah! Could I show you how?" Not give him the memory, actually do it.

"Go ahead." Luke closed his eyes and felt Leal reach out, then put a hand on Luke's forehead.

"Your fon slots: we're isofons but human slots are sort of… I think it would be a lot easier if I tune them to Lorelei's and my frequency. Otherwise, you're going to have a really hard time hearing me when I want to talk to you and I'm going to get headaches from the dissonance."

"Tune my fon slots?"

"It'll make you a lot better at fonic artes, and Lorelei let me see how to do it without hurting you. It'll only take a second."

"Go ahead." Luke didn't really feel anything but Leal's presence, which had already been there, and everything suddenly becoming less blurry. Yes, this would make fonic artes easier.

_Can you hear me?_

_Yes._ _Good, now we won't have to be separated._

_If you call for me, be careful. You'll probably get Lorelei by mistake a lot, and Lorelei's in pain. If you connect to him the pain will leak across for a moment until he connects you to me._ Leal leaned his forehead against Luke's. _So be careful._

_How much does it hurt?_ Oh, so that was how the memory power worked, although it was a lot more natural for the two of them. He'd have to be careful doing it to other people. _I'll be fine. _

_Alright. _Luke felt Leal almost close this link before strengthening it again. _Please, let them think you didn't see me. That it was probably a replica and it must have vanished like the other ones did, back to the fon belt. _

_I don't want to, but I will. If they think you're still alive they'll look for you, and it'll be really hard to figure out a way for you to come and see me. _

Leal hugged him. _Let me know how it goes, okay? _

_I will, as soon as they let me get a moment. _His father and the king would insist on questioning him to make sure he wasn't also a fake, then his mother and Natalia… _You get out of town, they might search it to see if Van's agents were tracking me. _

_One was. I made him go to sleep before I showed myself to you. _

_Thanks. I don't know when they'll let me out of the mansion again. _Luke sighed, feeling Leal's own sigh brush against his face. _At least we can talk this way._

_Yeah. Well… I'd better go. _

_I'll talk to you tonight, _Luke promised. He didn't want to say goodbye.

_I'll be waiting. _Leal pulled himself loose and stepped away from Luke. Their opening eyes met and then they looked away. Leal focused and an instant later he was gone.

Luke hadn't gotten very far before guards started pouring into the upper level's courtyard. "A hyperresonance has been detected! Spread out and…" Luke walked right up to the commander and removed his hood. "Lord, Lord Luke? Is that really you?"

"Yes, although given what Van told me you shouldn't rely on my face to tell you that. Take me to my father, I need to tell him what Commandant Grants is up to as soon as possible!"


	2. Chapter 2

_The _Atelier_ series: getting to play as the kind of person who would run an item shop right outside or even in the final dungeon. Strolling through monster-infested dungeons in search of ingredients and to make money._

_Atelier Luke? No, he likes selling and bragging about the stuff (which is part of bargaining), not making it. Still, it's probably where I got a lot of the idea._

_I played _Recettear_ recently, long after I originally wrote that A/N. Imagine Luke (and Anise) going "Capitalism, ho!"_

_I really do like the idea that Luke does the shopping in the game, and I can very much see him going 'I brought you shinies! Like me?' Imagine Noir training him as a pickpocket and patting him on the head. _

_I had Din start her trade good shop earlier in the timeline. _

_I do like the 'Maoyu' anime and light novels: they're nicely educational about what trade is supposed to accomplish and wartime economics. 'The one thing that everyone agrees on is that they want tomorrow to be just a little bit happier than today.' _

* * *

_So, what are you bringing me? Swordian Dymlos?_

_It was supposed to be a surprise._

Luke snorted. _Like you wouldn't bring the best you have to offer for me. _

_You're right. _Leal Zaon smiled as the lift ascended. _I bought an Elven Bow for Natalia and just for ruining my surprise, you're going to have to buy the Faerie Ring you want to give her fair and square. Merchants might give nobles they want as patrons big expensive gifts as the price of doing business, but other than that you're just my best customer, and a customer is a customer. If I gave you everything you wanted for free Din would have my head. _

Luke, having heard about Din, the mini maven who supplied the contacts that turned Leal's rare finds and Noir's ability to transport goods secretly (and Nam Cobanda's ability to produce fontech and custom clothing) into a multimillion gald business, knew better than to argue with that.

When the lift reached the top Leal looked out at a place he had only seen through Luke's eyes except for once, long ago. And now he would finally see Suzanne again. He'd picked everything out carefully. A Holy Ring for Luke's mother, who for a few months had been Leal's as well, armor for Luke's father, Rare Boots that Luke would buy for Guy (to make his servant walk more quietly, of course, not because he wanted to give him a birthday present or anything), and a World Charm for the king.

He'd spent those seven years learning how to be someone else, and the role of Chesedonian merchant wasn't just a role anymore: he was a merchant that lived in Chesedonia. And Nam Cobanda Island. Well, it wasn't a role any more than humanity was a role. Luckily Lorelei had managed to break the fact that as a collection of the seventh fonon with Lorelei's frequency, identifier, he was another aspect of Lorelei to him gently.

Now, he'd be meeting Luke's family, not just any client, so appearances were even more important than they always were. He was a member of the Dark Wing Circus, he knew about performing.

Red and gold were Lorelei's colors: just as Luke's hair had darkened Leal's had brightened in the sun until it was gold with only tinges of red. That was how Lorelei appeared as energy, as the raw fonon did. It wasn't entirely coincidence.

The dwellers of the Zao desert often wore cloths over their mouths and noses to keep the sand out, and what showed of Leal's face was almost as golden as his hair: a far cry from the paleness that resulted from being confined to a manor house and castle the majority of the time.

Din had a point that a blue sephira was always a good thing to have in the wild, every little bit of gald counted, but since he was going for the prosperous merchant look more than the savvy trader look the idol at his belt had been replaced by an alexandrite gem-studded hair ornament that sat at the top of the back of his head where the braid started. Luke hated how he looked in short hair and seeing his memory Leal had been forced to agree. The length of Luke's had been somewhat limited by how practical it was to keep it tangle-free, but Leal had learned how to braid it from one of the people who helped with costuming, liked how it looked that way (unlike Luke) and just kept growing it out. He'd cut it when he started tripping over it. Either that or start wearing a turban and wrap the top part around under it.

Luke disliked that look even more but, as Leal pointed out, Leal wearing his hair ways Luke didn't like and wearing clothes Luke wouldn't be seen dead in was a good thing. Guy and Natalia hadn't noticed a thing when they'd met at the arena for the first time two years ago. That had been a test run, and it had been a bit of a risk to do as Natalia suggested and team up for the team battles the following year. Again, they'd noticed nothing, although the fact that Leal fought with a mythril lance instead of a sword might have helped.

Sword-based strike artes had been contaminated by the man whose memories he had learned his first ones from. Staffs and spears were usually far better for fonic artes in any case, although fighting with a staff had started as an in-joke. No one but he and Luke knew that Leal's name had almost been Lance. The one he had now he'd found in the lair of a sand worm he'd run across in the desert while he was looking for trade goods. _That_ had been a tough fight. He'd had to draw on some of the techniques that he didn't use where anyone could find out about it.

Other than that all of his equipment had come from their shop, the Reflex armor and Rare Bracelet. He normally used the Draupnir he'd bought from another Chesedonian merchant, but he wasn't here to be a walking advertisement for the _competition_.

Although Gae Bolg was hidden in the item bag and he had a version of desert wear made out of very expensive material on over the armor. It didn't do to be openly combat-ready when meeting with a king or other head of state, even though Peony was Peony. Ever since he'd started commissioning custom outfits for random people and his rappigs the Grand Chokmah office had been swamped with orders from the rest of the court. Leal was here to open up a Baticul office: Din was working on gaining approval for an office in Daath since a certain Sheridan blacksmith had become a junior partner and therefore the company didn't have to work at gaining access to the weapons market there.

Leal stayed well away from Daath. He didn't even go to Padamiya if he could help it. Between the Order's headquarters and the fact the Yulia Road came out there… Van might be persona non grata in Kimlasca for the kidnapping, Malkuth for framing them for it, and Daath for the embarrassment he'd caused, but Mayor Teodoro of Yulia City wasn't going to let any of those Outer Land savages who didn't understand the majesty of the Score execute his grandson.

Leal had been to Yulia City once, when Van had been spotted elsewhere by dear Noir. Theft? Of course not. As Leal had figured out and Din had refined, smuggling was where the money was. Avoid those pesky tariffs and pocket the difference in price. Since people could detect hyperresonances Leal had to use travel methods that actually took time, but he could still be first on the scene when a sudden need for a good appeared and he always only bought where it was least expensive. The Sonic Wing arte he'd invented was his and his alone. He hadn't even taught it to Luke yet, although he would if he ever truly needed it.

_Nam Cobanda's a great place for a big kid to grow up, _Luke agreed. _And I don't need your artes, I have my own. _

_Hey, do you want to spend some time traveling with the circus, 'Asch?'_ Leal asked, smile hidden behind the cloth. _You envied me for it, remember? _

_Maybe. Six days until the new year. _Even if he destroyed the Tower of Rem, buried his old identity and thus fulfilled the Score the Kingdom of Kimlasca would still want the Score fulfilled its way. 'Asch' would have to stay gone until 2018 was over and they couldn't claim that those ten thousand deaths would be sanctioned by Yulia's legacy and Lorelei's will.

That sort of thing made Lorelei sick. _If you make up your mind about proposing to Natalia, I have the Faerie ring. If not, I brought an Elven Cape that would match the bow. _

Luke was silent. He and Natalia had been a couple since before they could remember, but to propose right before vanishing for a year and very likely being labeled a traitor? Natalia wouldn't lose faith in him, but everyone else would. _They've been gradually increasing the guard on me for six months now. _Leal had guessed they would, but Luke hadn't wanted to talk about it. _I don't think I'll be able to escape Baticul without using hyperresonance. _

_If you don't have time to set a destination then you should just end up in the core. Lorelei will look after you until either you manage to get out on your own or I can come pick you up. _It's going to be okay. They won't be able to trap you into mass murder: I won't let them. Those thoughts were unshared: the reality was too grim.

_I know._ Luke's determination was his answer to what he knew Leal was thinking. _We should disconnect now: you're almost here and if we have a conversation during a conversation again we might lose track of who said what how. _If Luke knew something Leal had only told him via the link it might attract curiosity.

_See you soon. _Leal's eagerness shone through. On the one hand, he would be entering the manor and seeing Suzanne, not to mention Guy, Natalia, and Luke. He'd missed them. But even if he wouldn't see them again for a long time he would get to spend a year traveling with Luke. They'd been dreaming of it for years, since their few days together.

Duke Fabre's holdings (and share of the loot from Hod) were not to be sneezed at: he was anything but a penniless noble of the type that Din occasionally bought and sold. However, Kimlasca was building up for war and thus people who could supply such high-quality weaponry, equipment, and tax money were in high demand. Having a Baticul office would be a wonderful front, but most of their representative's dealings here would have to be outside it. They were cracking down on smuggling very, very seriously at the moment.

Of course, their investigations were _nothing_ compared to Col. Jade Curtiss' ardent quest to shut down the source of half the outfits Peony kept trying to force him into. That secret passage between the palace and Jade's office let Jade sneak in to see what they had in store for him and sabotage their efforts if things were going to be _too _bad, so Peony had learned to outsource anything he wanted to be a surprise. Jade'd almost caught Din herself once, and they'd had to use the representative there as a semi-scapegoat on one occasion and replaced him with one of the Dark Wings. Leal's first encounter with the father of fomicry had been while the legendary Necromancer was being measured for a farmer costume: Peony needed a rappigsitter and wanted him to look the part.

Still, 'legitimate businessmen' had a lot more respect than usual right now, which was why Luke had been able to prevail upon his father to allow Leal to stay in one of the manor's guest rooms instead of the inn. The gifts also hadn't hurt. A Holy Ring was a godsend for someone with a degenerative disease.

He's sitting next to Suzanne at dinner (she sits at her husband's left, Luke at his father's right hand with Natalia to his right), and even though Noir was really his sort of mother for longer (and Lorelei is far more than even a real mother would be) she's still Luke's mother and what they have they share. The food is good, he hasn't had a chance to talk to Guy yet and they can't speak openly but this lunch almost like a family dinner (he's had those with the Dark Wings: Nam Cobanda, home of the abandoned by fate, is all one big family).

One of the problems with traveling as fast as he does is that he gets places before the messages meant for him do. A maid comes with a tray holding a scroll left at the door for him and he sticks it in his bag (it would be incredibly rude to open it now).

By the time lunch is over he's forgotten about it, because he hasn't had a chance to spar with Luke in months. Thus, when the agent of Daath (a descendant of Yulia!) comes to pick Luke up (Yulia City knows that Van told Luke about Akzeriuth: he learned that from Teodoro while he was there) to make sure that he keeps his appointment with death and destiny Leal is utterly blindsided.

All he knows is that someone's using a Yulian Fonic Hymn to put people nearby to sleep and when he and Luke charge to the aid of the guards she attempts to use it on them. When he, outraged, swipes at her to knock her off her feet and interrupt the arte he realizes too late that his anger loosened his control. Lorelei doesn't get angry (two thousand years taught him the futility of it): Leal wasn't taught how to handle it.

It's not until he finds himself in Tataroo Valley (only a bit north of Chesedonia and by far the best of the possible endpoints under the circumstances) that he reads the coded message from the Dark Wing team that watches the Road.

It's when he reads her that he finds out she's Van's sister. Mystearica Fende, Tear Grants.

The Order thinks she's here to make sure Luke goes to his death. Her brother convinced her to work to save him. Bring him back, bring him over to their side, create another replica. Or, possibly, track down the one that escaped.

After all, Yulia City hadn't failed to notice the many hyperresonances the yet-unnamed Leal had caused trying to find Luke. They thought he'd probably died in the core, fallen apart under the pressure the way Fon Master Ion's first replicas had kept doing.

Van doubted that even a mere shadow of the Light of the Sacred Flame would be that weak. Not one that had passed Dist's quality control, at least.

This complicated matters. Luke had seized the opportunity to make his own escape while Leal and Tear were pulled away: with any luck they wouldn't realize it was two hyperresonances and wouldn't have any reason to think Luke had run away instead of vanished.

Tear woke up when the butt of a spear hit her shoulder. It wasn't even strong enough to bruise, but someone was clearly willing to. "Wake up."

"I'm awake." She opens her eyes to see someone as battle ready as Major Legretta, although the Major is this way all the time and whoever this is seems to be clearly especially irritated right now. There isn't that sense of disciplined detachment that the Major has and Tear works so hard to cultivate.

"Who are you and why were you invading the fon Fabre manor?" That was classified, but that was a very powerful weapon being held to her throat, and the number of people strong enough to beat the arena who weren't already affiliated with Kimlasca, Malkuth or the Order could be counted on one hand.

"I'm Mystearica Fende and I was on a mission for the Order of Lorelei. Kimlasca intends to use Luke fon Fabre's death to win a war against Malkuth and kill thousands of people along with him. I was sent to infiltrate the manor and remove him to protective custody."

"After what God-general Grants did to him, I doubt Luke would have found your custody reassuring." That was classified! Seeing the alarmed suspicion in her eyes, the man explained, "I'm a merchant venturer, Tear Grants. Knowledge is money. I've fought beside Luke in the arena and he is one of our company's patrons in Baticul. Of course I did my homework, and it's his nightmare, he can choose who to tell about Akzeriuth."

This man knew about Akzeriuth?! She would have to either capture or kill him, or else the Score could go off-track!

"Just try it," he warned her. She couldn't see his expression, but his eyes didn't seem at all afraid of her. "Descendant of Yulia."

How had he known?

"That was a Yulian Fonic Hymn you used back there." Why was he telling her this much in these ways? Perhaps because she was Van's sister and he was enjoying seeing her trapped like a mouse and out of her depth, just like poor Luke had been. "And I'm a seventh fonist, as the hyperresonance should tell you. I can read the score and I help run a company that explores the middle of nowhere and brings back rare goods for a living. I even possess pieces of the seven fonstones, so don't think you can lie to me. "

"You have a piece of the seventh fonstone of the Planet Score?!" That got her attention.

"Not on me, no." He shook his head. "Now, what should I do with you?" Should he throw back his head and laugh evilly? He wasn't very good at it, though. He really envied the kids that got to play the part of cliché villain, it was really fun!

"They'll have tracked the hyperresonance here. The Order of Lorelei will hunt you down if you kill me."

"The Order of Lorelei? Don't insult Lorelei like that. It was Daath the traitor who founded your Order, and he persecuted Yulia and Lorelei." His memory ability meant he could do trial runs of things, but this was just abusing it, mostly because he did not like her. Well, more like he did not like her brother. This was just unfair to her, wasn't it. He sighed. "Never mind." He got rid of everything since he'd woken her up and put her back to sleep. He didn't like it, but he needed to know if he could still do it. Why had it worked on her and not Van?

Alright. _Luke?_

_I'm not in the core. I'm in some place with lots of flowers. _

_I think you tagged along with us. _

_Who's us?_

_She's Van's sister. _Luke's response was the desire to kill her. _The Order sent her to secure you for Akzeriuth. Van sent her to save you from repeating Hod. They want to try making another replica. _

_Never. _Neither of them would happen. _One of you is more than enough. _

_Ha ha. I'll make some light. Do you see it? _Leal held up his hands, summoning sixth fonons.

_Yes, you're close. Wait a minute. _Soon, Leal could hear him stamping through the bushes.

"Luke!" Leal hugged him.

Luke blinked at him a bit, surprised since he was used to Leal's mature mask when they met in person, then smiled. "Well, I guess you're still seven on the inside." Not to mention that the Dark Wings weren't big on the respect due nobility. He patted Leal on the back before separating, hoping that Leal would get the message that this was how these things were done. "What are we going to do with her?"

"Haul her to Chesedonia and turn her in to Aston for attacking fon Fabre manor and stuff. Well, I am. _You_ were never here. Then _we_ wander south across the desert instead of taking the ferry after I send a letter to Natalia asking what on Auldrant happened. After all, I would wonder what happened to my potential patron and Baticul's going to want to debrief me as well as her. Hey, don't frown at me, I have a cover identity to maintain! You wouldn't want them to think I had something to do with this, would you?" Leal folded his arms at him. "The problem is, though, there was only one hyperresonance. Well, only one destination. So they're going to know you ended up here. You could just say you didn't see me and vice versa."

"That's a little fishy. Wouldn't we have ended up in the same place if we were using the same hyperresonance? And I would try to take her captive, not run away from _you_." Luke shook his head. "I say we keep her our prisoner and go together."

"That means we'd have to drag her along and take the ferry when we get to Chesedonia."

"Not if I tell the consul I'm worried about the ferry being infiltrated or ambushed." Luke smiled. "You're not the only one who knows how to lie. I was preparing for kingship, even if I wasn't expected to live to see that day."

"So she gets sent home on the ferry, you sneak across the desert? Wouldn't work, they're too determined to keep you under their thumb right now." Leal shook his head.

"Oh, I think it would. Care to place a bet?" Luke grinned at him. "And if all else fails you can make them think it's their idea."

Leal looked a little rueful. "Okay, I just used the memory erasure thing on her because I wanted to gloat a bit-give me a break, she's Van's sister! But it's still not _right_."

"Your point?" Luke folded his arms. "She's our enemy, Leal. And in the matter of Akzeriuth the Kimlascan Court itself is our enemy. Right and wrong don't come into it when that many lives are on the line."

Leal sighed. "I suppose. But are you sure you want to return to Baticul?"

Now it was Luke's turn to sigh. "I didn't get to say anything to Natalia."

"You realize if you go back it's going to be a lot harder to break out, right? They might assign you bodyguards 24/7. Bodyguards who aren't Guy." Otherwise known as Gailardia Galan Gardios. Leal had found that out the first time they'd met again at the arena, wanting to see how Guy was doing. He hadn't told Luke. Luke would get all weird about it and it wasn't like Guy would actually hurt him.

"I can always pretend it's an accident. And what are they going to do?"

"Three words. Fon. Slot. Seal. They're expensive, but winning against Malkuth would be _well _worth it. They stick it on you, they take it off at Akzeriuth." Leal folded his arms. "And if they did that we wouldn't be able to talk. I'd barely be able to find you!"

Luke looked away. "I know. So… I'll go with you to Chesedonia and I'll vanish. Maybe break her out at the same time so they'll think she kidnapped me and leave her in a ditch somewhere. I'll write to Natalia along the way."

"Oh, I see. This is an excuse to make it look as though you didn't just run away."

"Can you blame me?"

"No, not really. If you're held captive somewhere then you're not a traitor." Luke, his… he wasn't Leal's original, Lorelei was, but his… Seven years and they'd never come up with a way to describe each other that felt right. Regardless, Luke had been raised almost like a rappig for the slaughter. His father hadn't let himself get attached enough to refuse to do what was necessary for Kimlasca's glory.

Luke didn't quite flinch at the word traitor, but close.

"Well, we should probably go tie her up before she recovers on her own." Time to change the subject.

"Good idea."


	3. Chapter 3

_Yep, Leal is way, way too used to being able to call do-over on conversations. He's not a bad kid any more than the canon version is, but he's just as much of… a sheltered brat in some ways as canon. He wouldn't treat Luke or Noir this way, but enemies are fair game and he's often a little quick to declare people enemies. (On the other hand, when they are out to get you…)_

_Something I try to do with the alternate universes is have people still be themselves, even though they're who they would be under those circumstances. This version of Luke would know to pay for an apple, but it's not long-haired Luke if he's not tripping over himself and messing up in a lot of ways. And being offensive without quite intending to, even if here it's because he thinks it's ok to be a bit of a troll. Immature? Raised by Noir?_

_As with canon pre-haircut, he's a jerk with a heart of gold but still a bit of a jerk in the way that children are jerks. Unless he likes you._

_He still hates the idea of killing or hurting people._

_Leal is much better socialized than Luke, true, but remember what Noir is like. Leal adores Noir-mommy and has her as his role model, and Noir is, quite frankly, a jerk during interpersonal interactions. She built the city and so on for everyone's sake, so she's clearly a nice person, and yet, well, she has no respect for the party and shows it. She's blunt and… less dishonest about hurting Natalia the way Noelle does than Noelle is, but she still doesn't care about Natalia's feelings, probably because Natalia is Kimlascan nobility and thus part of the establishment that condemned Hod to death._

* * *

Tear woke up when she felt herself being manhandled. A moment later she realized that she was being tied up. She decided to fake sleep for a moment longer to keep the element of surprise and listen to what was going on, although they wouldn't buy it for long.

"I'm a seventh fonist, I know a hyperresonance when I get caught up in one." That voice was far enough away they couldn't be the one tying her up. "I think I deserve an explanation of what just happened, Luke. I got hauled halfway around the world, for one thing."

"Like you don't go around the world every other month." That was the person tying her up. Luke fon Fabre? "We can force her to tell us what's going on as soon as she wakes up."

"Yes, but you should know how you got caught up in it."

"I can't tell you because I don't know. I'm a seventh fonist, but my powers are a bit weird. I don't know how that weirdness caused this, but it probably had something to do with it."

"Is it likely to happen again?"

Luke snorted. "We've sparred before and it hasn't. What about you? You were the one who set it off."

"She was invading your home. I got angry and let myself slip a bit."

"You? Let your control slip?"

"Bandits are bandits. There's no point getting angry with them. Someone who clearly isn't in need of money invading your home while we were sparring? Of course I got angry. I may get actually angry very rarely, but everyone has their breaking points, and it reminded me of how I lost my family."

"You're an orphan?"

"What, you thought I ran away to the Dark Wings Circus? I told you about how Noir picks up orphans with nowhere to go."

"I guess I wouldn't want to talk about it either. She's awake, by the way." The belt buckle snapped into place. "Stop playing possum, and don't try anything funny or I'll knock you out."

"Sorry, but I didn't know what was going on at first." Tear opened her eyes. That was Luke, and the other person was the man who had fought her and set off the hyperresonance that had brought them here. "My name is Tear Grants. The Order sent me to secure you, but my brother asked me to rescue you. As the scion of Lorelei you're the rightful fon master. Please, come with me: we can create another replica so you don't have to die."

"So I'll live and yet another helpless infant twin of mine will die in my place?" Luke snorted. "I'm not as despicable a coward as Van seems to think. If that is my fate then that is my fate. I'd rather fight to preserve my own life then _help _Van bring it about."

"Excuse me?" Leal got Luke's attention. "Should I pretend I didn't hear that?"

"Go ahead. And can you keep it up? I need to have words with this woman and I want you to watch my back."

"Sure."

"Thanks, Leal."

"Leal Zaon? Leal the Golden Dawn?" Now she recognized him!

"That was what you guys wanted to call me." He gave her a look. "How high up are you in the Oracle Knights, anyway?"

"The Oracle Knights tried to recruit you?" Luke seemed surprised.

"After what we all did in the arena? _Malkuth _tried to recruit me! I turned them down, of course, but I'm keeping channels open with Kimlasca. I am from the Zao Desert, after all, and that's Kimlascan territory even if we natives don't especially care for you city nobles." Leal, who had earned the title Dawn Singer in the Baticul Coliseum, dropped gracefully into a cross-legged seat. "They sent one of the god-generals, Largo the Black Lion. It turns out he used to work as a caravan guard." Checking to see if he knew anything Leal had found out one more thing he'd rather not know. "It was rather flattering, but I like my freedom."

"You didn't tell me about that."

"Hey, even I know there's something up with you and the Order. It's pretty obvious from how you react to things like Princess Natalia wanting you two to get your Score read." Leal wagged a finger at him casually. Even though as a member of the order and someone from Yulia City, Tear didn't take the nobility that seriously, she'd never treat Mayor Teodoro that way, and he was her grandfather. "Largo gave me some spiel about wanting to destroy the Score, that it sucked because it had destroyed Hod and taken his daughter away and was trying to kill you and get Akzeriuth destroyed just like Hod."

"You knew?"

"I'm a merchant: knowledge is money. You were the one who clearly didn't want to talk about it. I wouldn't want to think about it either. I may not be all that fond of the Score," Leal the Golden had never gone in for a reading in his life, Tear's brother had verified, except perhaps as a child. They didn't know what his original name had been: his family had been killed at some point, likely in the desert and he'd tagged along with the Dark Wings Circus since then. 'Zaon' meant from the Zao desert and was often used for foundling children there. The Circus wasn't all that fond of the Score either, and they'd refused to even talk to Oracle Knights. Leal wasn't the only orphan they'd picked up, so as a child he'd been lost in the mob. "But you have it a lot worse than I do."

Luke didn't respond to that, really not wanting to talk about it.

"You know," Leal said idly, "if we head east we'll end up in Malkuth."

"Why would I want to go to Akzeriuth?"

"Who said anything about Akzeriuth? Grand Chokmah's pretty this time of year. Of course, it's always pretty."

"That won't work," Tear pleaded. "If you want to avoid the Score, then please, come with me! If there was another way, don't you think my brother would have taken it? He cares for you, you were his student!"

"Cares for what he can use my power for." Luke spat on the ground like a commoner. "If it's only a choice between destroying that city for my family or for_ him_ then I'll choose my family, thank you very much."

"If it's not possible to avoid the Score, then why does the Order go to all the trouble of concealing Scores of death from the victim but tell anyone else it's useful to? You can't tell me it's for peace of mind." Leal snorted. "You may buy into that, but…" He stopped, and twisted some flowers with a tense hand.

"You almost got angry there," Luke commented, amazed.

"It's always something that upsets me. I need to watch out for that, or another hyperresonance could happen with you two here. Anger and the seventh fonon do not mix well." Tear and Luke nodded, that was obvious to any seventh fonist. "Anyway, Grand Chokmah?"

"Don't tempt me." Luke sighed. "I need to return to Baticul."

"To Princess Natalia, you mean. Don't you think she'd be happier if you were alive?"

Luke glared. They had discussed this, and Leal was taking shameless advantage of the fact that most of Luke's counterarguments couldn't be said aloud, not in front of someone like Tear.

Leal held up his hands to defer Luke's wrath. "You can't blame me for trying."

"Let's go to Chesedonia." Luke managed to smile a bit. "Natalia would never forgive me if I didn't pick something up for her on my first trip out of the city in seven years."

"You'll get a ten percent discount and that's it." Leal the Merchant Prince stood up. "Shall we get going? The monsters that come out during the day here are a_ lot_ nastier. We should get out before the sun rises." He sighed. "I'd like to pick up some Feathers of Wind while we're here, but not while we're saddled with a prisoner." Drawing a spear out of his item bag, he remarked, "You've got the shorter weapon, so you should pull her along. If I try to spear her with this while she's only a foot away from me I'll have a problem."

Luke ended up keeping Tear in front of him with one hand that held the belt's strap and holding his sword with the other. Her arms were tied but her legs were free so she could walk. Leal led the way. The monsters here right now really were weak and could usually be disposed of in a single hit. At least, a single hit by Leal. Tear was well-trained, but she hadn't defeated enough monsters to get the strength the fonons released by the victories would give her. After all, there were no monsters in Yulia City. She wasn't even experienced enough to use most of the fonic hymns she knew right now.

"You weren't kidding when you said these were easy."

"The selenias bloom at night and soak up all the fonons here. The strong monsters go to ground to avoid getting weakened. Would you believe there's a uniceros here?"

"A uniceros? Really?" She'd thought they might be extinct!

Leal turned to look at her. "Yes, really. Most of them died in Hod or the aftermath, but there are still some flying around. I hitch rides with them sometimes."

"Really? They'll let you ride them?" Even Arietta the Wild had never had any luck finding a uniceros, let alone taming one.

"I'm a seventh fonist. You need to be as pure as possible and able to sing purely, _that's_ absolutely necessary. They say you have to be a virgin, but I think that's just because it's rare for someone old enough to lose their virginity to qualify." He looked at Luke teasingly. "Want to try?"

"Could it take us all the way to Baticul?"

"Hey, I once rode one… I don't know how far. There are certain places where monsters go to die and you can find goods just lying on the ground. There are fourteen of them that I know of. We got an order for an all-divide once and you wouldn't believe… At least the leftovers helped me get this capacity core I'd been dreaming about for ages made." Leal looked smug. "Baticul, no. It's too impure for them. But I could get us pretty close. Maybe pick up some stuff on the way, too."

"This is not a shopping trip."

"Maybe not for _you_, no. I am a merchant, after all. Unlike you nobles we actually have to work for a living."

"Your equipment is far more expensive than mine."

"That's because _I _work for a living, unlike you who's stuck with an allowance." Leal looked around. "If we want to find him, we need to backtrack. He usually lairs near that door in the cliff."

"Door in the cliff?"

"It's covered over with some sort of seal. Come on, I'll show you."

When they arrived Tear stared. "A Daathic Seal?"

"What was that?" Luke jerked her chain. Or belt, in this case.

"Nothing. Where's the uniceros?"

"He must have left to avoid the selenias. Uniceros need a lot of fonons to fly. Let me try to call him: if he doesn't come now he'll come back here during the day. See that?" Leal pointed at an indentation on the ground. "He's definitely still lairing here." Tear wanted to go look but Luke tugged her back.

Leal looked around for a spot with good acoustics. The hard rock walls of the canyon might help reflect the sound and make it easier for the uniceros to hear him. Uniceros might draw upon fonons, but only those of wind and light. The seventh fonon included those, but he couldn't just reach out. It wasn't that easy.

He picked out what looked like a good place and started singing. "Rei va neu kuroa toue rei rei, Va rei zue toue ryuo rei neu ryuo zue, Kuroa ryuo kuroa neu toue rei kuroa ryuo zue rei va, Rei va…" The seventh hymn first, Lorelei's hymn, so there wouldn't be any actual artes being performed here, then the hymns that called on wind and light, then he started to repeat them. Uniceros, like cheagles, were just as smart as humans and if it heard it would know who called.

"What… that was the Sixth Fonic Hymn!" Tear hadn't recognized the first two verses, but that one she knew even if she hadn't grown enough to use it yet.

Leal stopped and stared at her innocently, cursing himself for not realizing that a descendant of Yulia might recognize the songs Lorelei had taught him. "The sixth fonic hymn? That's the uniceros summoning song. I learned it from the cheagle elder."

"From the cheagles?" Yes, the cheagles might know the Yulian Fonic Hymns: Yulia had made a pact with them just like with Lorelei. "Do you know what the words mean?"

"Yes, the cheagles. A bunch of us snuck up to Cheagle Woods one time the circus was in Engave. And no, I don't speak whatever language that is. Monsters seem to understand it, though."

That meant he couldn't actually use the Sixth Fonic Hymn: the singer had to know the meaning. But why would a light-based arte of destruction be used to remind a uniceros of a pact? But then, the entire Grand Fonic Hymn was said to be proof of Lorelei's pact with Yulia. Now that Tear thought about it, the other two verses seemed familiar, although it might just be that they were composed of the seemingly nonsense code words Yulia had used to compose all the hymns. Leal the Dawn had resumed singing, and the effect of the hymns he sang without knowing the meaning made a warm breeze curl around them and the air seem to become lighter.

Eventually they heard a whinny.

It was beautiful. A baby uniceros must be the cutest thing ever. It landed near Leal, who reached out to scratch under the fur. "Luke, come up slowly. Give him time to notice the two of you."

When they came close enough the uniceros reared, startled. "Step back!" Leal commanded them. "He's reacting to something about you. Luke, tie Tear to something and try using a panacea bottle on both of you. They can't tolerate impurity."

"It won't activate," Luke reported as Leal climbed on the uniceros, singing into an ear to keep him calmed down.

"I was afraid of that." Leal shook his head. "Luke, try coming up to him alone?"

The uniceros was fine with Luke: a friend of the person who knew just where to scratch was a friend of his. "It must be you then, Tear." Leal grimaced. "Seventh fonists can sometimes get away with having killed, like he's fine with you, Luke." Luke had killed on the journey home. "But I don't think a bath would fix this." He jumped down and when the uniceros looked at him he pointed to Tear and started to sing that song.

On each verse the uniceros whinnied, pawing at the ground.

"Impure everything?" Leal tilted his head. "Well, if it's a fonon problem we really can't fix it, and if he's reacting this badly he won't be able to fly very far carrying her. I think we're going to have to give up on riding him to Baticul." _It's the miasma. She grew up in Yulia City and some leaks in. Not enough to kill her or make him go berserk but enough to weaken a uniceros. _

"We could tie her to something near a stream and leave her here."

"Sure, if we want to give a monster a free meal."

"Why not?"

Leal grimaced. "I never can tell when you're joking."

"I was. We'll stick to the original plan and walk to Chesedonia. It's not like it won't be fun to have some time away from the manor, and according to your map it's not all that far."

"As you command, Lord Luke." Leal sketched a bow. "But it's near dawn. Why don't you find someplace nearby to camp and I'll take him out to look around?"

He returned a few hours before noon and shook Luke to wake him up. "Bad news. Chesedonia's branch of the order must have detected the hyperresonance." Since Chesedonia existed because of Daath it was their headquarters on this side of the world. "It looks like some rather troublesome people were in town. I couldn't get close, or they would have seen it wasn't just a bird, but normal people don't run that fast. If those two weren't Sync the Tempest and Legretta the Quick I'll finally buy a turban for the sole purpose of eating it." Van might have been fired, but his subordinates were still in control of the God-generals. Poor Sync. One of the Ion replicas might have been willing to accept Leal's help so he'd be strong enough to use Daathic Fonic Artes without dying but Sync's hatred of Lorelei meant he'd rejected Leal's offer and tried to kill him, forcing Leal to remove his memories.

Tear really needed to get better at faking sleep.

"If they're coming we can leave her here for them to find and leave by ourselves. Can your steed make another flight?"

"Sure, he won't get tired as long as there are fonons. It's not like he uses the wings for anything but steering."

"Good." Luke turned to Tear. "You're not fooling anyone, you know."

"Please, think about this. If you go home you know what they'll try to get you to do!"

"Yes. Akzeriuth, which is the least part of what your brother intends. Depopulating the city counts as destroying it, you know. I don't have to take it apart with hyperresonance for it to be no more. If I were to go there at the head of an army and threaten its annihilation the citizens would surrender and flee it. And if I were to kill myself there and then that would fulfill the prophecy of my destruction alongside it, as well as keep it from being destroyed despite my intentions. There are ways to obey the Score other than using an innocent child to destroy Akzeriuth the way Hod was. If_ I_ can think of that your brother must have. It's much simpler than creating a replica, after all. So, why does Van want Akzeriuth and its people killed so badly? I suggest you ask him that yourself: I have no intention of listening to another word he says." Luke turned his back on her. "Leal, let's head to Baticul."

"Are you sure you want to do it that way?"

"I've decided." Luke explained that, "_It won't be that hard to fake my death". _

"_What about Suzanne, Guy, and Natalia?"_

"_I'll warn Guy in advance: he'll be very helpful in sneaking out and without me there he'll be let go anyway. He can travel with us: you've repeatedly offered to pay him more and if I'm earning my own living I'm sure I can beat your best offer."_

"_You can try. I won't be able to get you better than a junior partnership. Noir, Din, and I are the people who understand how the business works." _

"_I'll work my own way up. As for Mother and Natalia… I'm not sure they can keep it a secret, but I'll have to tell at least Mother. The shock of me vanishing after what happened seven years ago must have already damaged her health enough."_

"If that's what you're going to do then I suppose that's what you're going to do. We'll remember you for it. Dying to save a city is pretty heroic." Leal offered Luke a hand up. "Tear, head to this guy's lair, okay? The other monsters will avoid it."

"You've got so much of a reputation that the assassins that work in the arena said it wasn't going to be much of a contest and you're this soft?"

"Hey, if you kill them then they can't tell everyone about how strong you are. It's win-win. I'd kill if I had to, I've just never had to. Ha!" When he shouted and reared back the uniceros seemed to recognize that as the command to take off.


	4. Chapter 4

"Thank you so much for helping bring my son home. How can I ever repay you?" Suzanne gripped Leal's hands in hers as strongly as she could, overcome with gratitude.

The grip wasn't as strong as Leal would have hoped.

"It was partly my fault he ended up there in the first place. It was the least I could do, and I'm the one who needs to apologize to you for worrying you so. Please, if you feel that you need to repay me then just get better, okay? For Luke's sake as well." Leal's discomfort was easy to camouflage as just embarrassment with being thanked like this. Suzanne wasn't his main mother, but she had been one for long enough to leave an impression. He remembered how sad she had been, and he hated that she'd gotten this sick because of Luke and himself. _We're going to have to tell her the truth. _

_Yes. _Luke, who Suzanne had just finished checking over and hugging into submission stood in the corner and watched. _But how much of it?_

_Don't ask me. _Noir would have said not to tell her anything, because ignorance was no excuse for letting the Score kill her children._ She's your mother_. Leal had Noir, he couldn't take Luke's mother. Or take responsibility for her.

Although of course they were very grateful Leal found his new office's approval fast-tracked and himself pushed out of Baticul as fast as possible. Luke had to recover and his friend was trustworthy. That was the problem. A trustworthy friend might know too much or assist Luke, and they didn't want that.

* * *

"I will go to Akzeriuth, I will force the inhabitants to leave by threatening them with my hyperresonance, I will have the troops you send me destroy the deserted city, and then I will fulfill the rest of the Score and ensure Kimlasca's prosperity by ending my own life. I will not kill ten thousand innocent people." That was his ultimatum. "If I was willing to do that, if I were that sort of coward, I would have gone with Van when he told me the truth. But I am no coward and I am no traitor. I am willing to die for the sake of Kimlasca, I have proved that by staying here for seven years knowing the truth. But I will not let the hands of our nation, the nation Natalia will one day rule, be defiled with that sort of bloodshed."

Luke turned to face Grand Maestro Mohs. "The Score does not require the sephiroth's destruction along with Akzeriuth. That is what Van wants you to think. His ambition is to destroy the Score itself, and he believes that twisting the Score's prophecy to allow for the destruction of the sephiroth will allow him to accomplish this."

Mohs' jaw dropped as he stared at Luke. "What?!"

"I don't know much, only the relevant passage of the Score, which you just read part of, and the propaganda he tried to feed me. He told me that the Score predicted my death and that sacrificing a replica in my place to buy time and destroying the Score was the only way I could survive. I chose not to survive at such a price. As I told his sister, _you _force him to explain himself. Or perhaps you would be wiser to just kill him. I myself refuse to entertain any more of his lies. Good day, Father, Uncle." Luke bowed and turned on his heel, not sparing Mohs another glance.

_That went well. _

_They haven't sent the guards after me, at least. We'll know when the time comes. _

* * *

Sheridan, having changed hands in living memory, wasn't all that loyal to Kimlasca. Their weapons ended up in Malkuth as well, after all. Given the choice between getting funding for their airship from the Crown, which would insist on using it and the flightstone for warfare and probably get it shot down over the ocean (and there would go any hope of building others!) and nothing they would have chosen nothing. Outside investors who wouldn't spill the beans were another matter. Sure, fontech buffs knew about the project, but there were very few fontech buffs in the military.

War was about breaking things, and people, and a fontech researcher's response to their new invention being attacked would be, "No! My baby!" Established technologies like the landships were one thing: the militaries of both nations had learned how to build and maintain them.

Leal could copy memories but he'd found himself having to do that every time he came here just to keep up, so he'd given up trying to pass himself off as anything but a dabbler. Knowing what they knew didn't give him the type of mind that could understand it and make new connections. His power gave Leal an appreciation of what was meant by the word genius. "So, you think she'll be ready for a test flight this soon?"

"Of course." Tamara chuckled. "Iemon's grandchildren are already training for it. You need young reflexes for that sort of thing, you know. Once we're sure she's reasonably sturdy we'll start sending her out on those routes you gave us. You're right, that will allow the Albiore to avoid stormy areas until we can make the craft's flightstone strong enough to endure them. Without you I don't know how we would manage the tests safely. Thank you so much for taking our air current measuring device to all those places for us."

"You're welcome. And it's not like I'm not benefitting as well. Once the Albiore can fly safely I won't have Din breathing down my neck about all the things that need to have gotten to Grand Chokmah yesterday all the time."

Tamara chuckled. "Ah yes, that girl is a handful. She reminds me of myself at her age, except interested in money instead of fontech. It's not that I'm not interested in money, but only as a tool like any other."

"I'll tell her that, I'm sure she'll be flattered. You use money to build flying craft, Din uses money to build companies. The way you both talk about it is a lot alike. Parts have to work together, doing it this way works better than the other thing…" Leal shrugged.

"Well, it's thanks to her that it's complete this soon and this project might even be self-funding." A lot of Sheridan's income was being soaked up by projects like the Albiore: if it weren't for the war buildup providing the city of weapon-makers with a huge amount of business Kimlasca's tax increases would be causing the city government's funds to be severely depleted. As it was the Trading Company's investment was a big, big help.

They technically owned the Albiore, or an Albiore, and the right to send it on as many flights as was reasonable in exchange for providing all reasonable funding necessary to completing the construction and thoroughly testing it to the satisfaction of Iemon, Tamara, and the others. In other words, they got it for keeps when the researchers had perfected it, were bored with it, and decided to move on to the next toy in exchange for letting Sheridan provide the hangar space and the labor free of charge.

Din had wanted to take them for all they had got, but Noir had shouted her down, Leal backing her up. Noir knew fontech buffs: they were why her city was able to have fresh water, the comforts of home, and toys to keep orphans distracted from what they had lost. Try to take control of their babies away from them and they'd react the same way any parent would. Care about their creation as much as they did and help them raise them right and they'd go the extra mile. Unmotivated researchers wouldn't have created a defense system for Nam Cobanda that _Leal_ had trouble getting through.

The fact that Tamara and Din now got along reasonably well and Iemon had said that if he was thirty years younger he'd ask Noir to marry him was worth the investment of time and risk of money. If Leal couldn't get Iemon to sell them future Albiores at a third or less the price he'd charge their competitors Leal would buy a turban and eat it.

He wasn't going to copy Din's odd speech patterns, or Astor's own persona, but there were worse catchphrases. "So, the first test flight will be in a week? I'll be here then, although I may not stay in Sheridan the whole time. Probably not, actually. If you need me send messages to the office."

"Of course, of course." They didn't want him hanging around getting underfoot either.

* * *

"Hey, Golden Boy!" Noir shook his shoulder.

Leal snapped out of it. "Hey! I was about to break my high score!"

"I swear, you're worse than even the littlest of the cowboys." Noir patted her former best monster tamer on the head anyway. "We're low on milk again and it's almost Unbirthday Day." That was when Nam Cobanda celebrated the birthdays of all the children who didn't know when they had been born. Since Leal's 'birthday' could be one of several days this included him.

Leal pouted at her. "Is that all I am to you? The grocery boy?"

"Hey, you just spent three hours playing Dragon Buster and from what you told me when you got here you've spent the last week running around getting into trouble as usual. There are no freeloaders in _my _family, right Leal?" There had better not be, as playful as her tone almost always was. "Here's the shopping list." There wasn't only food and other necessities on here, like parts for the fon machines and raw materials, but the birthday presents some people wanted to give other people. Mostly everyone on Nam Cobanda made everything themselves, like the costumes, but a lot of the money-earners didn't have the time to make presents when they were busy performing or working on the machinery.

Leal looked it over as he stood up. Cake, ice cream, fruit cocktails: Unbirthday Day used up a _lot _of milk. "I'm going to need to make several trips to Engave…" Even upgraded item bags could only hold twenty of a single item at a time in their dimensional pocket without getting them mixed up and losing them. Leal's business one dumped his extra trade goods directly to Din, but doing that with food people intended to actually eat, let alone gels or bottles, wasn't a good idea. Luckily he could give things to the Ant Lion Man in Chesedonia, who kept an odd fontech portal to Nam Cobanda that allowed Noir to drop off supplies while the Circus was on that side of the world, so he wouldn't have to come back to the island after every visit to Engave.

"Get going then, boy." Noir draped herself over him casually, her equivalent of a hug. "We'll shut down the fireworks at sunset this Gnomeday." That way he and the goods could get in quickly, without having to dodge like crazy or wait until the next time Noir was scheduled to leave or return by sea, which she wasn't going to do when there was Unbirthday Day to prepare for.

"I'll be there."

* * *

"What? All the food in the storehouse has been stolen?" Leal stared at Rose. "You're kidding me!" Noir placed bulk orders in advance with Rose, the village's headwoman: it was cheaper that way.

"I'm afraid not. Oh, hello Colonel." Leal turned around to see a familiar face who stared at him with well-concealed horror.

"Hello, Jade." He grinned and waved.

The Necromancer cleared his throat. "Are you here making a delivery?" Not another costume!

"No, I'm here to pick up the supplies for the Dark Wing Circus. What are you doing here?"

Jade hid his relief as skillfully as his horror. "Reprovisioning for a trip to Baticul. There have been border provocations and so on, although I'm sure you're aware of that." Knowledge was money.

"I know, the tension has forced our competitors to raise their prices." And given the Trading Company an excuse to raise theirs as well.

"Well, I suppose war always has led to prosperity… for the winners."

"I can think of a few exceptions." The Dawn War, for one. "Anyway, do you know who stole all the food?"

"You don't?" True, Leal _did_ have a reputation to uphold. And the door opened again.

"Fon Master Ion? It's a pleasure to see you here."

"Sir Leal? Is that you?" Ion's smile widened instantly.

"Who else would it be?" Luke wouldn't be caught dead looking like this. "And what did I say about calling me sir?"

"You two have met? I thought you avoided Daath like the plague."

"Well, sometimes you catch the plague." Leal had to laugh. "I have been there a couple of times. Not for very long, though."

"Leal's very memorable," Ion explained, backing him up. Things related to Leal and Ion both being replicas and Leal having helped Ion become stronger so he would be the last replica made were private. "What are you doing here?"

"Picking up supplies for the Dark Wing Circus, only it turns out everything's been stolen." The door opened again. "And who is this?" he asked Ion, recognizing the girl as an Oracle Knight.

"This is Anise, my Fon Master Guardian." And a friend, it seemed. "Anise, this is Leal Zaon."

Her eyes instantly turned calculating. "_The_ Leal Zaon? Wow! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"And you, Anise…" He held out his hand. There was no way she wasn't a spy for _someone_. Not in the Order of Lorelei.

"Cantor Anise Tatlin." Mohs, it seemed. Well, at least she wasn't working for Van and had orders to keep Ion away from Van. She'd actually helped Ion come here to avert the war… Her parents had horrible debts which were why she was working for Mohs? Well, _that_ was easily fixable.

Who knew that being unable to buy clothing would turn into an understanding of what exactly could and couldn't be solved by throwing money at it?

"Leal, I found cheagle fur in the storehouse." Ion held it out to him.

"You're right, that's definitely cheagle fur." He pocketed it. "I'll head up there and find out what's going on. Cheagles eat grass, so I have no idea what they'd want with human food."

"Thank you, Leal."

"It's no problem. I've been wanting to visit there for awhile, although I'll have to cut it short since I have supplies to move. I first went up to the Woods…Oh, five years back, when the Dark Wings Circus passed through Engave on the way to Grand Chokmah. Have you ever seen a cheagle?"

"No." Ion shook his head. "They're the sacred animal of the Order of Lorelei, though. I think I should go with you."

"Ion, no! That's too dangerous," Anise protested.

"It's my duty as Fon Master." Ion refused to budge: Leal was proud of him.

The Colonel adjusted his glasses. "In that case, I think I should come along as well. After all, we can't have any accidents happen to undeserving parties." As opposed to deserving ones, like Leal.

"Sure, your soldiers can load it all on that landship of yours and bring it back here. When do we head out?"

'We?" Jade faked surprise.

"Well, you look pretty light, Ion, but I don't know about you, Anise. I mean, you're thin, but I'm betting a lot of that's muscle, since you're an Oracle knight, and muscle weighs more than fat. You look like a good breeze would blow you over but I bet there's an iron hand in that velvet glove. I suppose we could walk most of the way. That would give time for the Tartarus to get underway and catch up with us, Jade."

"Walk?" Anise asked. "As opposed to what?"

"I have a fonic arte that lets me fly," Leal informed her proudly. "It's my own arte: no one knows it but me. But it's a little awkward to carry passengers. The arte could handle you fine, but I'd still be carrying you, and you'd be just as heavy to me as you would be if I were carrying you along on the ground. It works by pushing air around as opposed to weightlessness." Those were a couple of the methods flying monsters used.

"Oh. You don't have to carry me, Leal, I can walk," Ion said. He wasn't that ill.

"Can, yes. Have to, no. I can carry people three times what you have to weigh, easy. You're a kid, Ion, Fon Master or no. Live a little. Think of it as helping me stay in shape. You wouldn't want me to start going downhill when I hit thirty like some grouchy old men we know, would you?" Cough, Jade, cough.

"If you don't mind…"

"I wouldn't have offered if I minded," Leal said with an easy, sunny smile that was answered by Ion's own jubilant grin.

Jade frowned and shook his head. No, any resemblance was only in his imagination, surely. If anything, it was _Anise _that should be reminding him of the conniving merchant.

He reminded himself to make very sure that Anise never found out how much bribe money Peony was willing to toss around to get Jade into embarrassing outfits. At least he could count on Leal not to tell her, not when that would cut into Leal's cut.


	5. Chapter 5

_I do like Maoyu, by the author of Log Horizon, even if you can tell it's based on an earlier work. There's an anime version of it too, by the way, if you need something to tide you over until season 2 of Log Horizon._

_Leal/Luke might be more worldly-wise here, but he's still a kid at heart, surrounded by a lot of deadly adults and precocious little spies. Godlike powers are not necessarily a match for the will to do whatever it takes to win._

* * *

As they walked northward, Anise peered up at the sky, frowning. "This is like when Arietta flies off with him…" What if he fell?! There was nothing she could do, down here on the ground!

Ion might be grabbing the cloth on Leal's shoulders, but sitting sidesaddle on his back couldn't be that secure (he couldn't sit the way people usually sat on riding beasts because of his robes). Leal had produced a couple pairs of goggles out of his item bag, and tied his braid up so it didn't flip around and whack Ion during the flight.

Casting the arte for takeoff was in an upright position, with Ion's robes hiked up so he could hold on piggyback until Leal could lie down in midair a couple of feet above the ground so they could be sure that Ion was secure enough: he had to cast the arte while already carrying Ion to feel how much power he had to put into it to compensate for the added weight.

As though they'd heard her, Leal started to circle down towards the two of them. "Nyooooooommmm…" They heard Ion say as Leal banked in one of those circles, followed by laughter.

Leal flattened out at around the height of Jade's waist, so Ion could sit there like he was on a bench and grin at them, holding Leal's braid like reins.

"Are you feeling okay, Ion?" Anise asked, worried.

He nodded. "It's a lot of fun! I wish I could use the arte, but I might get tired." In midair, that could be very bad.

"How's your beast of burden holding up?" Jade wondered.

"Just going from Engave to Cheagle Woods is nothing," Leal said. "This is a day trip even for people on foot." Well, usually they'd camp overnight before heading back, because even though the Rugnica Plains had the weakest monsters, better safe than sorry.

"We'd get there a lot faster if we used Tokunaga."

"No, I'd rather not," Jade said firmly. He knew one of Dist's creations when he saw one. He would be very unsurprised if it was programmed to jump on his foot and call him a big meanie if it recognized him. It hadn't so far, but he didn't want to take any chances.

"I was talking about Ion riding Tokunaga with me," said Anise.

"Oh? I thought you rather liked Leal, or rather his money."

Sullen silence, and a glance up at the sky. Oh? Anise really didn't like that idea?

"Be nice, Anise," Ion instructed her, seeming very sagely in that particular moment. Most people considered the role of peacemaker part of the duties of a Fon Master, especially after Evenos' end to the Hod War.

Jade knew what a lie that was.

The reports about Fon Master Ion's character were… conflicting. Still, his association with Leal meant he probably wasn't a mass murderer, although who knew. Even though Leal disliked killing, and this arte was part of why he could get away with that, he still was willing to associate with Jade himself.

Probably feeling left out of the conversation, Leal rose up until he could look down at them, Ion leaning forward a little so he could do the same. They both waved. "Well, go have your fun," Jade told the children (seventeen was a child compared to a man of his advanced years). "We'll just keep plodding along."

* * *

When they got to the forest, Leal ran off to find something he'd promised someone, and Jade and Anise had to deal with a pack of wolves. "Are you _sure _you don't want to go back, Ion?" his bodyguard nudged him.

"I'm safe with you, Anise," he told her, "and of course the Colonel. I'm sure Leal will catch up with us soon too."

She looked at Jade for help: quick, before the bad influence came back!

"If the Fon Master wants to do his duty to the sacred Cheagle by preventing a conflict between them and the townsfolk…"

"Wow, these are great apples!" they heard, Leal dropping down from the tree a moment later.

"You left us for _food?"_

"I left you because one of the farmers who grows really great apples lost something, and I just popped back to Engave, and wow, these are _really_ great apples. You should have one, Ion!" Leal reached into his bag and held one out to Ion with one hand, taking another bite out of the apple he held in the other. "We shoof-" swallow. "We should definitely buy all our apples from that guy."

"Would you cut it in half?" Ion asked Leal, after taking a tiny bite out of the apple.

Leal nodded, and held the apple he was eating out to Ion so he could get his spear, then he prompted Ion to hand him the other apple and cut it. Ion held the half without the bite in it over to Anise.

"Wow, this _is _good, for an apple. I wonder if he'd be interested in an exclusive contract to supply apples to the Fon Master?" Anise wondered.

Leal squawked, clutching the apple he'd recovered from Ion to his chest.

"Well, if he delivered all of his apples to Daath, then Leal would have to come visit me," Ion realized.

The merchant pouted, trying to look like a poor, pathetic creature betrayed by his only friend in the world.

"Anise, you are clearly a horrible influence," Jade told her. "Keep up the good work."

* * *

"I don't know," Leal said a couple of hours later, with a blue cheagle perched on his head. "_Can _I carry a whole liger queen?" From his frown, it looked like the answer was no.

"To where?" Jade asked.

"Right, the monsters in Mushroom Rock Road will eat the babies." The blond looked sad as well as out of ideas and generally brainless.

"It didn't sound like she would consent to being moved," said the Colonel. "Even with my men to defend Engave, an infestation of monsters like this on the Rugnica Plains?" This was where the majority of the entire world's food supply grew, _because _farmers could work in relative peace, with only brief battles that didn't tear up entire fields.

He found himself extremely tempted to say "We're going to have to murder them, you idiots" or something along those lines, but then Nephry's face flashed before his eyes, when he looked at the bleeding heart and the innocent young Fon Master who was helping keep Malkuth out of war and might be less inclined to do so if he was reminded that Jade was The Necromancer by watching him kill baby ligers. "Why don't you three go back to the Cheagle Elder," he told them, "And I'll handle things here. I'm told I can be very persuasive."

Anise picked up on it instantly, saying "Yeah, come on Ion, let's not hang around here."

Leal looked at him, face blank, but he'd grown up with a traveling circus. The key word there was traveling. Monster attacks were a way of life, and there was a difference between not killing himself and allowing others to be eaten alive.

And he was there in Engave to buy food, like so many other merchants. Who would know better than a merchant just how much Auldrant depended on the safety of the Rugnica plains?

* * *

When Jade caught up with the rest of them at the Cheagles' tree, he prepared to make a report to the cheagle elder when Ion said, "I know you killed them."

Anise and Leal wouldn't look at him.

"I know that killing babies is wrong," Ion said gently, "but I also know that it happens. There was a good reason this time."

…He knew of an incident where someone killed babies _without _a good reason? My my my, Jade had never considered what being the Fon Master and reading the Closed Score, all those Scores of Death would do to a child's innocence. Unless they were like Jade, and never had any to begin with.

"Ion…" the orphan said sadly.

"It's okay, Leal. Sometimes, there's just nothing anyone can do."

His head jerked up, leaf-green eyes meeting Ion's. "But!"

"It's okay," Ion repeated himself.

"Fon Master Ion? What are you doing here?" they heard from behind them.

Leal had his spear out before he finished turning to face the entrance: Jade took his cue from the pacifist. If the merchant went right to potential stabbing instead of trying to sell to a potential customer… "Oh, right, I told you that I learned the hymn from the cheagle elder."

"Who are you?" Anise demanded.

"She's Van Grants' sister, and a member of his faction," Leal told them.

"Ah, _that _explains why you're on such bad terms with the woman who warned us that Kimlasca intended to destroy Akzeriuth and all its people," Jade said, snapping his fingers.

Leal stared at him. "You knew about that? Then why did you ask for Ion's help stopping the war?"

Jade smiled and said nothing.

"…If you kill King Ingobert and Duke fon Fabre, _Natalia _will go to war," Leal warned him.

"Well, not letting our citizens be slaughtered is already going to start a war with the Order of Lorelei," Jade pointed out. "In for a gald, in for gold." He leaned forward. "But why would you think that?" Had his mind just leaped to assassination, which seemed uncharacteristic for him?

Leal gave him a look. "You're the Necromancer."

"The action of a rogue madman." So yes. "Natalia can have her revenge on me."

Hesitation there. "…You should talk to Guy Cecil. The one who was in the arena with us…"

"Duke Gardios," Jade acknowledged with a nod, although regrettably, Leal had just lost his chance to get back to Engave, as opposed to staying on the Tartarus to ensure Ion's cooperation. He'd clearly already known the identity of their inside man, even if not necessarily that he was an inside man for them as well as himself.

"Grand Maestro Mohs is in Baticul, trying to force Luke fon Fabre to go through with it," said the hymnist. "If you manage to take out all three of them…"

"That was rather the idea," he told her. "Duke Gardios wrote us about the fon Fabre heir's reluctance. If I stay for the princess' justice, and her fiancé and his best friend can convince her not to go further than that…"

"Except for the Score," Tear said sadly. "You _won't _succeed. Akzeriuth will end up another Hod, and Luke will be forced to kill them, just like my brother! You can't just let Kimlasca execute you, who will-"

"Rather disingenuous for a member of your faction to remind me of my duty to protect the emperor, wouldn't you say?" Jade asked her. "When it was your brother who brought us a piece of the fonstone beneath Daath. The one that says the throne of Malkuth will be stained with the blood of its last emperor, and his killer would stand on my corpse?" He shrugged. "If anything, I should make sure to die in Kimlasca, to force them to go to the trouble of hauling my decomposing body all the way to Grand Chokmah. I hope she chokes on the stench."

"Except you're not going to let Natalia live..."

"The Lion's Daughter: that _did _take a bit of detective work." But of course he wanted to know the identity of Peony's killer. "With her dead, the throne passes to the Lady Suzanne, who is too ill for a protracted campaign, and her son is three years shy of his majority. There are still various members of the duke's faction, and his lover, but Gailardia has promised to restrain his cousin."

"If you kill Natalia…" Leal started to say, and then paused. "If you kill Natalia, Luke will see Peony dead in Natalia's name, no matter how many he has to slaughter to clear his path to Peony's throne," he said softly, "and if you try to kill Luke… I can't let you do that."

Jade tut-tuted at him. "You might be a candidate for God-general, but that's only because they're rather strapped for candidates. I hear they were even interested in _Saphir_." Or Dist the Runny. "You've never faced the battlefield: you don't have the guts to kill me."

"I don't need to," said Leal. "I just have to keep you from killing Natalia."

"Stop!" Ion ordered. "Jade, whatever you're going to do, I won't let you hurt Leal!"

"I'm not going to hurt him," Jade said cheerfully. "I'm just going to… What?!" What was that sensation?

He looked up.

"They cost so much because it's very hard to gather the materials, but if you can gather the materials quickly…" Leal was saying when Jade's spear got him in the lung.

"I'm just going to _maim him a little," _Jade said, finishing his prior statement. "Using a fon slot seal on me won't-"

"Luke knows what you're planning to do," Leal said, the wound closing over quickly once Jade retracted his spear. "I told him, just now. Guy won't be able to kill Natalia for you, not with Luke watching him. He doesn't care what you want to do to the other three, but leave Natalia out of this."

"He's telling the truth," Ion said. "There's a Daathic Fonic Arte." That part was almost certainly a lie. Malkuth had a list of Daathic Fonic Artes. They might be seventh fonic artes, and that might be the fonon of sound as well as healing, but how would one shout for a single person's ears half the world away? Perhaps if their fon slots were synchronized or something, but that would…

"My, my, my," said Jade. Either Leal was lying, or he'd found the missing replica, and the fact that Ion chimed in to reinforce the lie… It might explain the Fon Master's reported multiple personalities. "Well, it looks like I'll be adding Saphir to the list of people I need to have murdered."

Hearing a thump to his side reminded him that they were in a room full of cheagles, but if he retained the Sorcerer's Ring, they wouldn't be able to tell anyone anything.

"Anise!"

Jade raised an eyebrow at Leal and… Ah yes, Mystearica. Was she legitimately ill, was that a ploy, or had one of them done that. "She reports to Grand Maestro Mohs," Leal said. "Sorry, Ion. She's okay…"

Or she had been, up until Tear's throwing knives hit her back.

"A pity, I liked the girl." Even fon slot sealed, it wouldn't take much to finish her off.

Leal's spear blocked his own, but he jerked when a bullet hit his back.

"Legretta?" Tear asked, surprised to see her here.

Not as surprised as Leal was, by the fon slot seal that appeared over his head.

"Damn!" Jade cursed.

"Shouldn't you be pleased by the payback, Necromancer?" The Black Lion asked, looking down at them from one of the upper entrances to the chamber.

"Now they'll know we're coming and we'll have no chance to negotiate with them." Jade threw down his spear in frustration, an impulse he yielded to because fon slot sealed, he had no chance to resist two fallen god-generals. "Fon slot seals release the fonons artificially gathered inside a body! What do you think a replica is?"

"We're aware of that," Legretta said crisply, as Leal fell to his knees inside the arcs of light. "This is not just any replica. A being of the seventh fonon, with Lorelei's fonon frequency. Van realized why a passage in the score referred to the _young _scion of Lorelei. Lorelei predicted that we'd create another body for it, free of the core." She turned to her student. "Tear, are you alright?"

"I thought I was just here for the hymns?"

"It has power over memory, just like Lorelei controls the planet's memory, and created the future of destruction. That would be how it learned Jade's plans so easily."

"It shouldn't be taking this long!" Largo cried warning.

Green eyes opened. "Second-order hyperresonance." Would nullify all fonic effects, including fon slot seals.

Legretta's lips pulled back from her teeth in contempt. "Using your other aspect's power."

"Using Luke's." The fon slot seal over his head kept working, or trying to work. "I'm his shield, not Lorelei's sword. Lorelei doesn't _want _a sword. I won't let _anyone _use Luke to destroy Akzerituth, not the city or the sephiroth. He and Natalia promised to make Kimalasca a better country, a country that wouldn't murder Malkuth's innocent civilians and commit atrocities!"

"And I won't let you hurt Leal," Ion said, hitting the inside wall of the tree with the head of his staff, the tuning fork's pure tone echoing in the confined space. "Or Anise."

Tear intercepted the life bottle that Leal threw over towards Ion. "It was my ancestress that made the pact with Lorelei, it's her fault that the people of Hod, that everyone is condemned to death! I won't let-"

Ion frowned. "Sleep."

He reached up with his staff and carefully hit the fon slot seal away from Leal, over towards Legretta and let out a sigh of relief when it fastened on to her. Then he nudged Leal's shoulder until he woke up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, let me get another life bottle."

"She'll be fine for a little longer, won't she?"

Leal nodded.

"She was really…?"

"I saw it when I saw you two in Engave."

Ion's shoulders drooped. "Then, maybe…"

"She's your friend, she really doesn't know what Mohs wants to do." What he'd already done, to Ion's brothers. "You're the Fon Master: it didn't even occur to her that he'd kill you if he realized that you were up to something big."

The young replica let out a little sigh of relief.

"Are you holding out okay?"

"It wasn't a strain at all, even without a circle," Ion said, holding the end of his staff until it stopped ringing. "What do you think we should do?"

"Um… I can't make false memories, and Van will know what he sent them to do. They don't know where he is. I suppose I could take Jade to Peony and tell Peony what he was planning." Then Peony would lock him up to keep him safe: with a fon slot seal, that might even slow Jade down. "Anise is your friend," so Ion would know best. "Her parents need the money."

Ion nodded: he could take care of that.

"They keep giving it away," Leal warned him, shaking his head in disapproval. "They take out loans to give money too, and… I think you should have one of the Order's financial people take over that." Try to terrify them into not doing it? Leal didn't know, he didn't understand not making sure you had money to buy food. "Luke wants to take Natalia to the Tower of Rem and honeymoon there, and bring Guy, and not come back until people stop it. They stuck Van in a machine, though, to destroy Hod, and Mohs has the plans, if Luke didn't agree to destroy Akzeriuth. They could stick another powerful seventh fonist in there, like you."

"I liked the idea of going to Baticul with Jade, and killing Mohs is an even better idea," Ion told him. "I'll talk to Jade, and Anise. If the Grand Maestro is dead and the Fon Master says that Score was invalid…"

"They won't want to believe you: they want the promised prosperity, and to destroy their enemies." Greed and Pride.

"Luke and Natalia should still go on their honeymoon," Ion decided. "I know you want them to be happy. Won't the Dark Wings help, too?"

"Yeah." Leal perked up. "I don't know what to do about Van, but I bet Noir will know. She survived Hod," that was where that hair color came from, "so maybe if Tear talks to her…"

* * *

_And so, Luke and Natalia set up housekeeping on top of the Tower of Rem and fire arrows and shards of ice down at anyone who tries to make them come down until the people who survive Luke's manservant (and Jade) cleaning house promise to be sensible on the topic of murdering an entire city to start an unjust war full of more war crimes. _

_Ion takes over Daath, which still remembers his murderous original, so this involves a lot of coaxing people out of the corners where they are cowering and chanting "Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt meeeee!" with intermittent screaming. Van is willing to work with the replica Ion for purposes of murdering anyone who tries to put the Score back in place. _

_The loyalists try to convince Noir that since Nam Cobanda contains a lot of Hod's survivors, she should swear fealty to Guy and it should be his new dukedom, but she tells them to get lost, because Guy was busy plotting murder when he should have been trying to look after his subjects, which says where his priorities are (the wrong place). _

_Generally people live happily ever after, except Mohs._


End file.
